Buchenberg to Weitnau, 17Km
Today was forecast to be the coldest and wettest day of this unseasonably dreadful weather which is affecting so much of Central Europe. And it was correct. The rain fell for much of the day and the temperature was just 4 degrees (Real Feel 1) when I hopped off the bus in Buchenberg this morning. I dashed into the church (also covered in scaffolding) to get a stamp and to put my waterproofs on.
I’m delighted with the new hoodie. Not only is it warm but with the hood up, it stops wasps going down the back of my neck.
As Jakobsweg goes, it was a wild and spectacular walk today, on a ridge top shrouded in clouds and with an elevation that reached 1106m. That might not sound so much if you go to Tibet for your holidays but you get a nice view of Bavaria.
I’ve now settled into the Gasthof Krone (special pilgrim rate 50 euros incl breakfast). When I arrived at 2pm in the pouring rain, the place was locked and a sign in the window said it would open at 4pm. I rang the bell several times until a woman put her head out of an upstairs window and told me to return at 4pm. Eventually she agreed to let me in.
It’s a strange place. After staying in a modern, efficient hotel in Kempten where everything was designed for maximum occupancy and fast cleaning, I’m now in the typical Bavarian Gasthof. It’s difficult to imagine what the architect was thinking when this monstrosity was conceived. I pity the poor person who has to clean it (and despite appearances, it is clean). The floorboards creek, the walls are paper thin and I can hear someone next door trying to cough up a lifetime of smoking. But it’s one of those places I’ll remember after all the modern chain hotels merge together.
Pilgrimage 
In that weather, the wasps have probably headed for the nearest Gasthof.
Indeed, when the wasps are around it’s too hot for a hoodie. I could buy a summer model
Kia ora, Tim, beautiful landscape even in the wet. A very sobering reminder of the awful concentration camps in that beautifully elegant carving of pleading bound hands surrounded by barbed wire/crown of thorns. It’s an image I’ll remember forever from your walk. Far more dramatic and memorable than those in the Commonwealth cemeteries across the north of France. Kia kaha.
Yes Vicky, I try to imagine the person doing the carving, what they were feeling and how the people of Germany felt during the war